Today’s links No, “convenience” isn’t the problem: Enshittification isn’t caused by “lazy consumers.” Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I’ve been. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. No, “convenience” isn’t the problem (permalink) Using Amazon, or Twitter, or Facebook, or Google, or Doordash, or Uber doesn’t make you lazy. Platform capitalism isn’t enshittifying because you made the wrong shopping choices. Remember, the reason these corporations were able to capture such substantial market-share is that the capital markets saw them as a bet that they could lose money for years, drive out competition, capture their markets, and then raise prices and abuse their workers and suppliers without fear of reprisal. Investors were chasing monopoly power, that is, companies that are too big to fail, too big to jail, and too big to care: https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi The tactics that let a few startups into Big Tech are illegal under existing antitrust laws. It’s illegal for large corporations to buy up smaller ones before they can grow to challenge their dominance. It’s illegal for dominant companies to merge with each other. “Predatory pricing” (selling goods or services below cost to prevent competitors from entering the market, or to drive out existing competitors) is also illegal. It’s illegal for a big business to use its power to bargain for…Pluralistic: No, "convenience" isn't the problem (12 Apr 2024)